Nutrition in Aged Care

Chapter 6: Nutrition

Overview:
Describes the procedures and assessments required to ensure proper nutrition, including:

• anthropometric measures
• observing eating patterns and behaviours
• proper menu‐planning

Description:
Eating and drinking is basic to sustaining life. Withdrawing food and fluid leads to starvation and dehydration and death ensues fairly quickly as bodily processes shut down due to lack of fuel and fluids. The simple provision of sufficient nutrients and energy will improve a person’s health and general quality of life.

Topics:

• Introduction
• Nutritional assessment
• Anthropometric measures
• Weight
• Eating patterns and behaviours
  • Institutional changes to eating patterns
  • Individual abilities and behaviours
• Nutritional issues in aged-care facilities
  • Malnutrition
  • Dehydration
  • Dysphagia
• Texture-modified diets
  • Types of texture-modified diets
  • Presentation of texture-modified diets
  • Thickened fluids
  • Finger foods
• Therapeutic diets
• Menu-planning
• Conclusion

Speaker / Author:

Linda Kilworth

Linda Kilworth is a dietitian nutritionist who has worked for more than twelve years as a consultant to various chains of residential aged care facilities in Brisbane and south‐east Queensland (Australia). Her main role is to advise on nutritional anagement and dietary planning for the residential aged care populations and on foodservice management and standards generally. Linda is involved in writing and developing policies and procedures, communicating these to the relevant staff members, and developing processes of review and evaluation. This consultancy also encompasses call‐outs to various residential aged care facilities to conduct individual dietary assessments, prescribe development of nutrition screening methods, and to provide practical advice on dietary modifications.

Professional Reviews:

a goo introduction to aged care food would like 2 know more about texture modified diets